All the rage at the moment. I’m making more and more Baritone guitars, mostly following this format because the Leonardo body shape works so well.

This custom order uses high grade Koa for the body, Sinker Redwood for the soundboard, Walnut bindings with black borders, and a neck laminated from Mahogany with black lines. Koa head veneer, Abalone diamond markers. Stunning.

Cocobolo Bouzouki

Another custom order. I had a free hand, and I don’t use Cocobolo much. The colours of the wood led me to use red lines around the Ebony bindings, and through the neck, which is also laminated with Ebony. There is even a little red around the soundhole, and everything seems to "jump out". The Soundboard is Sitka Spruce because I had a lovely piece just the right size. At the last moment, Alex suggested we add a red line to the Truss rod cover. Good idea! Isn’t it glorious?

I don’t think many other makers have the choice of timber that we have here - that’s what happens after fifty years of hoarding, sorry, “careful selection and investment”.

We are off to California and Oregon soon for some more careful selection and investment. Moira thinks it's a holiday. She obviously hasn't noticed the size of the suitcases.

This is the title track to his new album. What is it with John and large expanses of water? At least this time he didn’t dip his guitar into the lake and pour it out again, and at least he didn’t risk his Fylde!

The album is due for release on 30th June.

Order it here, be quick, because it is going to be a fast seller. I know one lady who has ordered 10 copies in case she wears the first 9 out. I think the line “Shake your dress off, save my life”, has something to do with it.

We have about 18 guitars in the “standard” Fylde range now. I didn’t really need to add another one, but every so often, the politics and economics of wood cause me to think of ways to offer different combinations to be able to keep ahead of all the regulations.

This one is Sapele back and sides, Cedar top, Ebony fingerboard and bridge, and won’t cause any export problems.

I have made a few similar guitars to test the idea, and I think I’m getting close now. I might be offering this for sale soon, just have to decide the price.

David Bronze

Dave sent me this picture, taken while recording with Mary Chapin Carpenter at Real World Studios.

Dave works with everybody, just as long as they are very, very good. There are no videos of him using the Magician Acoustic Bass, yet - but here is a little treat for you, sharing the stage with some other geezer and looking as if he does it every day. He does.

Mrs Bronze says the guitar is the best looking one Dave has, and he is allowed to keep it in the living room. If you need to be even more impressed - just look at DB’s credits

Dennis Nyong

About three years ago we completed two rather special guitars, and here is the very patient owner of one of them.

“An observational study using watercolour, and pencil mixed media” by Alice Nyong - who happens to be the daughter of Dennis, the lucky man in the picture.

During the eight or so years that the guitar took to make, Dennis and I talked a lot about our families and our pride in our children. The conversation usually went like this, Dennis - “Hi Roger, is my guitar finished yet?” Me - “Hi Dennis, err - how’s your family?”

James Yorkston teamed up with our old friend Jon Thorne, and master Indian musician Suhail Khan a while ago, and they like to drop by the workshop when they are passing. Link to video

James has his slightly unusual custom Falstaff, Jon on upright bass of course, and Suhail on “Sarangi”. To me, there is a definite feel of Incredible String Band to this song.
They have a new album:Available here.

JP Cooper

JP seems to be playing guitar less and less in his latest videos, so I must show these while they are still relevant. Link to video.

I don’t know much about Jack – yet. He is currently recording an album of solo acoustic pieces using his new guitar.Link to video

I’ll try and post new videos when the album comes out. Well done Jack. Jack's website.

Greg Russell

A Rosewood and Cedar Alexander, long scale, fitted with Headway FEQ pickup. The guitar has been sitting here, fully paid for, for a while. Greg was too busy promoting his new album to come and collect it. I could have sold it several times. There will be music and videos as soon as Greg has stopped smiling. Greg's website

Of course, Greg is one half of a duo with Kiaran Algar, who also plays Fylde, so we should be seeing a lot more of both of them.

Bireli Lagrene

Bireli had this guitar from me a few weeks ago, and has been on tour ever since, my spies sent me this picture.

Bireli must have dozens of guitars, so I am particularly pleased that he is using this one at the moment. He emailed " the sound is just out of this world thank you so much"

Well, the magazine does have three features concerning Fylde guitars and players. A major spread on "our" John Smith. A very well constructed discussion about a really old Lysander guitar, and a double page on Adam Palma.

We have just passed the thirtieth anniversary of the iconic film. Much of the film was shot near where I work and live, and the tractor in the distance in the film was driven my son-in-law’s father. There - how’s that for reflected glory?

The final choice for “Withnail” came down to Richard E. Grant or Ed Tudor Pole. I asked Ed about that, and he told me “Yes, it was between Richard and me in the end. I was more like Withnail in real life than clean-cut teetotal he, but I wouldn't have been anywhere near as brilliantly perfect as he was."

For a while, Ed played the new Falstaff we built for him, but has reverted to his historic, mangled, reborn Olivia.
Despite his outrageous public persona, Ed writes and records lovely, clever ballads and sends them to me. I do hope he manages to release them before long.

So now I’m going for the biggest contrasting link I can get - Sir Cliff Richard

Cliff’s band called this guitar the “G Plan Guitar”. I phoned Cliff once, many years ago, he answered the phone and said “Hi”. Link to video

Gordon Giltrap

Of course, it was Gordon who introduced me to Cliff. Gordon is irrepressible. He is constantly finding new ways of presenting his music, and finding new fans. Link to Video

Here he displays his Fylde Signature guitar very nicely, and there are lots of snippets to drool over.
Gordons latest Album” The Last of England” is probably his best,and available from here

Wonderland, How Play made the Modern World
by Steven Johnson

“Aeons before early humans started to imagine writing or agriculture, they were crafting tools for making music”

That is a quote from an early chapter in this book, which bases itself on the idea that every development in this world comes from the human need to have “fun”. Some of the earliest human artifacts are animal bones, fashioned into flutes, carved to play musical intervals which we still recognize today, and the need for music is all through history, and across all societies. The making of music has a longer history of technical innovation than any other form of art, and has lead to countless technical breakthroughs. Link to video

Machines to play music were the first to record information in the form of mechanical “code”, pinned cylinders and punched cards, and for nearly 1,000 years, that use of programming was applied only to music, before the realisation that similar principles could be applied to weave patterns out of silk.

These recording techniques were “binary” - hole or no hole, pin or no pin, and the punched cards of the Jacquard loom inspired Charles Babbage in his “difference engine”, the very first computer.

It isn’t an accident that we use the word “play” in relation to making music.

The methods of inputting code to computers were replaced by keyboards, a term taken directly from music, and then magnetic tape, which of course has been the means by which most of us have come to hear music in all its forms.

Without music, perhaps we wouldn’t have computers.

The book doesn’t restrict itself to music. “Throughout history the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused... you’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.”